Amanda Edwards/WireImage Andy Samberg is speaking out about his lateBrooklyn Nine-Ninecostar Andre Braugher and how much he misses him a year and a half after the actor's death Braugher died at age 61 in December 2023 following an illness, his rep confirmed to PEOPLE at the time Three months later, theBrooklyn Nine-Ninecast gathered to honor and remember him Andy Sambergis remembering his lateBrooklyn Nine-NinecostarAndre Braugher. A year and a half afterBraugher died at age 61in December 2023 after an illness, Samberg, 46, reflected on the actor's prowess and their time together on the sitcom during the July 8 episode ofAmy Poehler's podcastGood Hang. Samberg played Detective Jake Peralta on the series, which was created byParks & Rec's Mike Schur, alongside Braugher's Capt. Raymond Holt for eight years on the beloved Fox police procedural. Poehler sensitively broached the topic of Samberg's late costar during his appearance on her podcast, as she praised Braugher as "so good in the show" and "so poised." "He seemed like he was just playful and fun," Poheler said of Braugher. Jordin Althaus/NBC/NBCU Photo Bank via Getty "He was," Samberg agreed. "And just a good person. Like, so deeply moral and kind and pleasant and smart." "We all absolutely loved him. I miss him a lot," he added. "Our dynamic worked immediately. It was like one of those things where you're just like, 'Okay, this is kismet.' I don't know how to explain it," Samberg recalled. At their first table read forBrooklyn Nine-Nine, which premiered in 2013, he said that things clicked for him and Braugher "as soon as we started reading" the pilot script. "From that moment forward, the only thing me and him had to even talk about creatively was in the beginning, he didn't trust himself to do comedy," Samberg continued. Braugher's self-doubt when it came to comedy was rooted in his acting background. "He came so strictly from drama and Juilliard," Samberg explained. NBC/NBCU Photo Bank via Getty When the rare serious scene came up onBrooklyn Nine-Nine, "He would flip that switch and everyone would be like, 'Oh my God, what is Andre doing here? He's so good. Like he should be in, like, drama, he's the best.'" "Then he would do his Captain Holt stuff and it was the funniest thing in the show," Samberg added. In March 2024,Terry Crews,Melissa Fumero,Chelsea Peretti, Joe Lo Truglio,Stephanie Beatriz, Joel McKinnon Miller,Dirk Blockeand Samberg allgathered for a reunion in Braugher's memory. In a jointpostshared on Instagram by Crews and Fumero, they wrote of the special night together, "We laughed. We cried a little. We reminisced. We laughed some more. Nine Nine Forever." Beatriz, 44, later told PEOPLE that the cast dinner was "a chance for all of us to get together and make each other laugh." "And it was also a chance to talk about Andre. It came up immediately, and then we put it away for a while," she said. "But at the end of the dinner, by the end, we were all just sharing stories about him and our memories of him. And he lives in our hearts forever and ever." Never miss a story — sign up forPEOPLE's free daily newsletterto stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories. Crews, 56, similarly told PEOPLE that the "beautiful" reunion gave the cast "time to reminisce and just think about how special our time together was." "We laughed, we cried, we missed Andre Braugher, who we lost a few months ago," he said. Read the original article onPeople
